​1775 Last Chance before the Revolution2014 SOLD 910 K$ including premium

The first Continental Congress was a failure when King George III refused to hear the demands of the American colonies. After its dissolution on October 26, 1774, the war began in Massachusetts.

The second Congress met in Philadelphia from May 10, 1775. The Americans were now convinced that it was useless to try diplomacy with the British government. The Congress entrusted two of its delegates, Livingston and Lee, with the action of preparing a petition advocating reconciliation, more subversive because it was to be distributed directly to inhabitants in Great Britain.

The petition was printed in Philadelphia. It probably had little direct political impact but it occured in that period of political overheating which will culminate in January 1776 by the anti-royalist pamphlet of Thomas Paine.

The draft manuscript of the petition was discovered in Morris-Jumel Mansion, a house in Manhattan that had served as headquarters during the Revolution and now operates as a museum. An employee who was sorting papers for digitizing immediately understood its importance.

This document written on both sides of 6 leaves 31x24 cm is an autograph manuscript by Robert R.Livingston, confirming his leading role in the implementation of this action. Dated July 1775, it is largely remorsed. It is easily readable but with significant damage at the location of folds.

This historic document whose price is difficult to predict will be sold on January 26 by Keno Auctions in New York. Here is the link to the catalog.

The actual role of Livingston in this operation remained confidential but his patrons had appreciated the efficiency of his work. Member of the Committee of Five charged in 1776 to prepare the Declaration of Independence, he was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and had a brilliant legal career.

POST SALE COMMENT

This outstanding document of American history was sold for $ 730K before fees.

1775-1776 pair of Lafayette-Washington saddle pistols2002 SOLD 2 M$ including premium by Christie's

1776 Silver, Brass and Pewter2015 SOLD for $ 1.53M including premium

At the time of the independence of the United States in 1776, the Congress attempted to get the financial independence by circulating paper money in a new unit, the dollar. This system was difficult to use for small amounts, and first tests were made for a one dollar coin.

This early US metal coinage remained confidential and was limited to the year 1776, but a significant quantity has been achieved, probably to test the capability of mass production. Heritage estimate that about 1,000 of them survive.

Some variations exist, because the dies were made by craft and wore out quickly, but also because a few engravers were involved. The operators also had to correct misspellings. Three metals were used: silver, brass and pewter. The majority of them are in pewter, abundant in North America at that time. This surprising diversity is certainly due to the still experimental nature of the project.

The earliest variant, described under code 1-A by Newman, was soon abandoned because its dotted rings were too difficult to perform repeatedly.

The sale by Heritage in Orlando on January 7 and 8 includes no less than fifteen of these Continental Dollars. Two are in silver, three in brass and the other ten in pewter.

The Newman 1-A brass coin is graded MS63 by NGC (lot 5834, January 8). It is the best from three 1-A known in brass. The Newman 1-A in pewter is the only known specimen of the original sub-variant in this material, identified by Heritage during the preparation of the auction (lot 4004, January 7).

The two silver coins are a Newman 1-C graded XF40 by NGC, the best from two known silver 1-C (lot 5838, January 8) and a Newman 3-D graded MS62 by NGC (lot 5842, January 8). Only one other silver 3-D is known. Graded MS63 by NGC, it was sold for $ 1.4 million including premium by Heritage on May 16, 2014.

​​1776 The Dollar of the Continental Congress2014 SOLD 1.4 M$ including premium

In 1776, the Continental Congress had the heavy task of considering whether the colonies of North America can and must declare their independence. The funding for the effort of organization and war is supported by the release of paper currency. The selected unit is the dollar, which has the advantage of being readily understood as a variant of thaler without being linked to a foreign currency.

The $ 1 bill is an immediate failure, probably because it would require to print huge quantities to meet the need. Metal coins are minted in pewter, brass and silver.

These $ 1 Continental Currency coins are extremely rare and were not documented in their time. Some dies are signed. For such a small amount of money, it cannot be a private mint but indeed the pattern experiments to develop the coinage of the future independent state.

In silver, only four units are known. One of them is in remarkable condition, graded MS63 by NGC. It is the most correct variant, after and before misspellings in the word 'currency' and signed by the engraver (EG).

This coin was acquired in 1956 by Eric P. Newman. It is the top lot in the sale held on May 16 in New York by Heritage dispersing nearly 700 coins of colonial North America from the collection of the now centenarian numismatist. it is lot 30423 is the catalog.

Note on the reverse the circular chain of the thirteen colonies. Each one is identified in a ring. In 1793, when this symbol was reused without naming the states, the chain cent will be booed by the patriots as a symbol of slavery and almost immediately withdrawn.

POST SALE COMMENT​This highly rare silver coin of the American Revolution was sold for $ 1.4 million including premium.

1776 Announcement in Salem​2018 SOLD for $ 1.2M including premium

The printed disclosure of the Declaration of Independence of the United States takes the forms of official or private posters and of spontaneous newspaper inserts. The posters have the format of broadsides, intended to be visible on walls for a few days. They are also read to the troops and to the public.

The official broadside of the Congress is printed by Dunlap in Philadelphia in the early morning of July 5, 1776 and passed on to the delegates for disclosure in the thirteen colonies without waiting for the ratification. This document is directly or indirectly the source of all early publications of the Declaration.

The Declaration reaches Boston on July 13 and Watertown three days later. The executive Council of Massachusetts meeting in Watertown decides on July 17 a new edition of the broadside for use by religion ministers. It adds in post scriptum a requirement to read the text aloud after the Divine service of the very first Lord's Day following the receipt of the document.

This edition by order of the Massachusetts Council is commissioned to the official printer of the colony, Ezekiel Russell, working in Salem. Very similar to the Dunlap edition, it is typed in a single broad column.

Russell was also the printer of Salem's only newspaper, The American Gazette. The Council was unaware that the Declaration had already been published in the No. 5 of this new weekly paper on 16 July in four narrow columns spreading over two pages. During the composition of this issue the same four columns had been printed as a 43 x 36 cm broadside, perhaps by the Gazette's publisher for his personal trade. A copy was sold for $ 570K including premium by Sotheby's on June 17, 2010.

On July 23 the No. 6 of The American Gazette is devoted to the Declaration as authorized by the Council, with a few words apologizing to readers for that exclusive content. The authorized broadside 50 x 40 cm was certainly printed simultaneously. A poor copy was sold for $ 510K including premium by Heritage on April 5, 2016. A very fresh copy passed at Sotheby's in New York on June 19, 2015 and is estimated $ 1M in the same auction room on January 17, lot 176.

On August 5 the Council approves its official broadside. Both examples discussed above identify on their back the recipient Reverend and his parish. The American Gazette had permanently ceased its publication after its No. 7, probably due to a break of partnership between publisher and printer.

1779 George Washington at Princeton by Charles Willson Peale2006 SOLD 21.3 M$ including premium by Christie's

​1781 Rochambeau to the Rescue of America2010 SOLD 1.15 M$ including premium

The arrival of Rochambeau and his troops in America in 1780 was decisive for the independence of that country. The military operations of the French very well coordinated with General Washington led to the defeat of the British at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.

A few days after the victory, a French officer sketched a detailed map of the battle. A simplified copy, 35 x 60 cm, of this historic document was given to Washington and was thereafter preserved in the archives of the President's secretary, Colonel Lear. A legend shows the different phases of the siege.

James D. Julia sells on February 5 in Fairfield, Maine, a large collection of books, documents and memorabilia from the Colonel. In its press release, the auction house frankly tells that it does not know to evaluate the price of the Yorktown map. The announced price range extends from 5 to 50 K $!

Americans love their history and the maps of their territory. I take for example a map of the Mississippi basin, 1858, 150 x 75 cm, sold 270 K $ hammer price in November 2009 by Neal Auction in New Orleans from an estimate of 18 K$.

POST SALE COMMENT

This lot was outstanding, obviously. It was sold $ 1.15 million including premium.

​1783 The USA desire a Monetary System2013 SOLD 1.18 M$ including premium

A state cannot maintain its independence without a monetary system. The birth of the coinage of the United States is a long story that begins in 1781 and ends in 1792 with the establishment of the factory in Philadelphia.

Everything remains to be done in 1781, even to choose the name of the new currency. The project was entrusted to a young assistant named Gouverneur Morris who will make a brilliant but unconventional career. In 1783 a few prototypes were struck in silver and in copper under the generic name of Nova Constellatio.

At that early time Morris had understood the political importance of the decimal system to definitively distinguish the future currency from the colonial currencies circulating in the thirteen states. He suggested that 1440 units are exchanged against one Spanish dollar.

Very few of these pattern coins have survived : one 1000 units, two 500 units in two different types, three 100 units and one 5 units. The discovery of the coin of 5 units in 1977 was sensational because its existence implied that other values ​​were probably also prepared.

The silver coins of 500 units were named quints. The unique surviving type 2 quint is for sale by Heritagein Schaumburg (Chicago) onApril 25. Here is the link to the catalog. Of course, it has not circulated since this first system was immediately stopped. Its condition is graded AU53 by PCGS.

Its importance is extreme. It anticipates by 9 years the final adoption of decimal currency by the U.S. Congress. It is also four years earlier than the famous initiative of Brasher, the private goldsmith who received the permission to create and circulate American coins.

Its beam radiating to the thirteen stars of the States, centered on an eye that sees the world, is an amazing futurism.

POST SALE COMMENT

This piece is an extraordinary survivor of the first tests for a federal coinage. It was sold $ 1.18 million including premium.

1787 Doblons for New York2014 SOLD 4.6 M$ including premium

When the United States declared their independence, the issue of monetary autonomy became a puzzle whose importance was vital to the new state. In 1783 the first federal project named Nova Constellatio is a failure. In 1785, a step forward is made ​​with the naming of the new currency, the dollar.

Meanwhile, business transactions use large foreign gold coins, dominated by those from the Spanish colonies in South America. Banks and grand merchants are the only users of such coins. To deal against counterfeiting, they have their gold checked by specialists, the assayers, who put their own punch on the controlled pieces.

Ephraim Brasher is a goldsmith operating in New York City where he is a neighbor and supplier of George Washington, the President, known as a great lover of silverware. Brasher appreciates that he can play a role in the fight against the monetary anarchy, but his offer in early 1787 to carry out a copper coinage for the state of New York is rejected.

Brasher is an assayer. He knows well the doblon of Lima, a large gold coin worth 8 escudos and weighing 26 grams, whose name is anglicized to doubloon. Circa 1786, he produces in his workshop some Lima-type doubloons which are not fakes because their gold content is correct.

Brasher changes his theme in 1787 for producing doubloons and half doubloons to the use of New York identified under the Latin name Nova Eboraca. The pieces are stamped with his initials, EB, with two possible positions on the wing and on the breast of the eagle. Although their centering and cutting are awkward, they are beautiful coins whose design is sharp enough to discourage counterfeiting.

The only known Brasher doubloon with the mark on the breast was sold for $ 7.395 million in a private sale in December 2011, although its condition is only graded AU50 by PCGS.

On January 9 in Orlando, Heritage sells one from only two units in mint condition from an overall surviving total of six wing marked doubloons. The coin for sale is graded MS63 by PCGS. Here is the link to the catalog.

The coin for sale had been the first Brasher doubloon that was described in the nineteenth century. It was at that time in the estate of an important dealer importer named Gilmor also known as an early collector of coins.

This mercantile provenance strengthens the argument that the Brasher doubloon, earliest gold coin made ​​for circulation in the United States, was designed to supersede the foreign currencies in large commercial operations. Other assumptions are however not rejected such as a promotional operation or a demonstration of know how.POST SALE COMMENT

1787 Washington promotes the Spirit of the American Constitution2009 SOLD 3.2 M$ including premium

In the United States, 1787 is the year of the Constitution. It became vital to build a strong government and to end the risk of opposition between these former colonies whose respective histories were so varied.

George Washington, the hero of the War of Independence, is one of the most active proponents of this reform. In a letter written to his nephew on November 9, he explains that power is not given to people but will always be with the people.

This autograph letter of four large pages is presented for auction by Christie's in New York on December 4. We anticipate a price equivalent to the major political manuscripts of Lincoln. It is estimated $ 1.5 million.

I would not discuss the U.S. Constitution without mentioning the great legislator who designed the mechanism for implementing such a political masterpiece. His name was James Madison. His unsignificant presidential output undervalues him in the American memory, and it is a pity. The U.S. Constitution is still in force today without fundamental changes, while the French Revolution, which began two years later, is mostly leaving an emotional memory.

POST SALE COMMENT

As I expected (or better: as I hoped in the preparation of my auction barometer) this letter of Washington met the prices of the two political manuscripts of Lincoln recently sold (with less than 10% accuracy range).

For Lincoln: $ 3.4 million including premium at Sotheby's in New York on April 3, 2008, and the same price at Christie's in New York on February 12, 2009.

For Washington, yesterday: $ 3.2 million including premium.See the image of that lot, shared before the sale by AuctionPublicity.

​1787 The Federalists in New York​2015 SOLD for $ 1.45M including premium

The Constitution of the United States of America is prepared in Philadelphia in 1787 by a committee composed of delegates from twelve of the thirteen member states and chaired by the future President George Washington. On September 28, the process of ratification by the states is released.

The difficulty comes from New York where a strong majority of delegates is hostile to the new project. The anti-Federalist publicists begin publishing pamphlets.

Alexander Hamilton counter-attacks with great energy. With his political friends John Jay and James Madison, he publishes in the New York newspapers under the collective pseudonym Publius no less than 77 essays, starting in October 1787. Hamilton's goal is to provide to the federalist orators the best arguments to persuade their opponents that a weak or divided state will always be ineffective against foreign threats.

John Jay quickly suspends his contribution for health reasons, but his essays numbered 2 to 5 in the series are highly effective. The autograph manuscript of the essay number 4 of November 7, 1787 is estimated $ 600K for sale by Christie's in New York on December 8, lot 242.

This pamphlet boldly refers to the enemy as an example of political strength by the cohesion between its elements, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The manuscript includes republican thoughts that were not maintained in the published text, probably because the author wisely realized that they could open unnecessary controversies.

The collection extended to 85 texts and titled The Federalist is published in two volumes 18 x 11 cm just in time for the New York State Convention held in Albany. The rallying of this extremely important state to the Constitution on 26 July 1788, saving forever the federal state, is undeniably due to Hamilton's skill as publicist and negotiator.

A copy of this highly rare book is estimated $ 300K in the same sale as above, lot 243.

1789 Creation of American Freedoms2012 SOLD 9.8 M$ including premium

During the ten years following the Declaration of Independence of the United States, the Congress sets up a code known as the Articles of Confederation to manage the relations between the states. Too idealistic, this first law is a failure.

The founders of the nation are now trying to redefine the delicate balance between the executive and legislative branches while considering also the need for autonomy of each state. Their work is outstanding, since the system defined between 1787 and 1789 is still the foundation of the US law.

George Washington is one of the key figures in this success. On June 22 in New York, Christie's sells his personal copy of the main acts of Congress. This collection gathers the Constitution, various acts including the creation of major Executive Departments, and the first draft of twelve articles known as the Bill of Rights for an effective and pragmatic definition of freedoms.

This collection was a working document for the new President. It is also a much valuable autograph: signed on the title page, it includes handwritten notes in the margin of several acts.

This collection of 53 sheets 30 x 19 cm assembled in 1789 in a binding probably made in the same year remains in excellent condition. It is difficult to predict the price of such a treasure, but the auction house tries an estimate: $ 2M to 3M. Here is the link to the catalog.POST SALE COMMENT

US people know to recognize their historical documents of great importance. This extraordinary witness of the birth of the Constitution was sold $ 9.8 million including premium.

I invite you to play the video shared post sale on YouTube by Fox News :